Thinking about joining a Lions Club but unsure on some of the things you have heard about us?
Well, here are a few common Lions Club myths—busted!
🤫 Myth: It’s a secret society.
✅ Reality: We’re not hiding! Check out Lions around the world on Facebook and see what we’re up to!
🦁 Myth: It’s just for men.
✅ Reality: Nope. Women have been part of our pride since 1987.
👵 Myth: Only people who are retired can join.
✅ Reality: Wrong again! Whether you’re 18 or 80, you’re welcome here!
🎟 Myth: You need an invite to join.
✅ Reality: Just ask! We love welcoming new members.
🌍 Myth: It’s just in our local area.
✅ Reality: Think bigger! We’re part of a global network with over 10,000 clubs.
💸 Myth: Joining is expensive.
✅ Reality: While there are membership fees, we do all we can to keep costs low.
🎉 Myth: Fundraising just pays for our outings.
✅ Reality: Nope! We cover our own fun—100% of the money raised for charity goes directly to supporting community projects and causes.
(The Lions Clubs Myths and Reality were devised by Liskeard Lions – Yes, Lions Clubs share ideas and support each other)
How you can help us:
- Support club events
- Encourage others to attend club events
- Donations through collections
- Give us your old spectacles (for SightFirst)
- Give us your old hearing aids
- Join us and help
- Volunteer to help at events. Help arrange our events such Charity Family Fun Day, Carnival week, Santa’s Tour to name a few. Help other local organisations with their events.
So what do the Lions do?
Being a Lion is being part of an organisation spanning the globe with 1.4 millions members in thousands of clubs such as The Lions Club of Looe. All Lions clubs share the tag line of “We Serve” which is fundamentally what we do. Serving comes in many forms, but a major element is plain service, for instance in Looe the Lions have served the community by helping to run over 50 COVID/FLU vaccinations clinics when they were most needed. Some requirements by their nature or geography can only be helped by funding, either locally such as the Christmas hampers through the Liskeard and Looe Foodbank for those in need, and nationally and internationally such as “SightFirst” fighting the causes of preventable and reserve-able blindness.
What would I be expected to do as a Lion?
Actively participating in activities where the focus is on serving, volunteering at vaccination clinics, marshalling at community events, driving people to events that they would otherwise not get to, and much much more. Being a Lion means getting involved in these events and giving up your time to ensure these events can happen.
Some of our activities are focussed on fund raising for local, national and international projects and needs. Events such as the car boot sales that we operate between June and September needs Lions to open up and set out the car boot field, park buyers cars, park sellers in their pitches, collect pitch fees from the sellers and tidy the field at the end. There are many other events that require organising that generate donations to the club. Being a Lion means attending many of these events, without your participation these fundraising events could not happen.
The serving and fundraising events do not just happen, they need organising and to this end there is a requirement to actively participate in regular and event related meetings. We hold a monthly general meeting at which we plan events, review what we have achieved and decide on what donations we will make to good causes. Some events such as the annual carnival week require more in depth planning and to this end there are event specific meetings to thrash out the details. Being a Lion means actively participating and contributing to the majority of these meetings, taking responsibility for aspects of the events and/or taking a lead on the event.
It is not all serving and generation revenue, we hold numerous social events throughout the year, some formal but the vast majority are opportunities to socialise over a drink and/or a meal. We all have different preferences for socialising so a they are varied, but events are there to celebrate our achievements and enjoy the company of like minded people willing to give time and effort to help others.
Would I make a good Lion?
That is down to your own circumstances, if you can make a reasonable commitment of your time to fully participate in the club’s various activities then with our help we are sure you can be a great lion and great asset to the community that you live in. If you can’t then maybe now is not the time but as your circumstances change it is a decision to revisit.
Should you be interested in becoming a Lion then please contact our Lion Secretary via email at membership@looelions.co.uk
Thank you.